Working group created because of court costs

A new Land and Environment Court Appeals Working Group will not have any authority to contribute to the legal strategy in Central Coast Council’s numerous cases, nor in determination of any individual development application.

The Working Group, a brainchild of Cr Doug Eaton, was adopted by Council in November last year over concerns about more than $3m council spent on external legal costs last financial year, mostly relating to Land and Environment Court appeals.

The latest DA figures show that council has to respond to 32 cases in the LEC at the end of January of this year with 20 of them there because council did not process development applications within a deemed period. They are called deemed refusals.

Developers take the DA to the LEC and a conciliation meeting often results in an amended application being approved under the court process.

The number of Development Applications older than 12 months (as at the end of January 2026) stands at 89, which is the same as the end of December 2025 and this figure is the lowest for more than 3 years.

Councillors are being asked to adopt the working group’s terms of reference at the March 24 meeting.

The Working Group will have no authority to contribute to legal strategy in the prosecution of appeals, nor in the determination of any individual development application. 

Its role will be to provide advice, input and feedback on LEC matters relating to governance; policy, service efficiency, financial management and reporting.

Membership will be made up of the mayor, the deputy mayor, “councillors as nominated by council’’, the CEO and/or council staff delegated by the CEO.

The Working Group will choose the chair. It will meet confidentially and once a month.

In addition to members, any other councillor can attend and participate in all aspects of the Working Group with the exclusion of voting. 

The purpose of the Working Group is to provide advice and recommendations to council on the community’s expectations in Council’s participation in planning appeals in the Land and Environment Court, including but not limited to the expenditure of operational funds. 

Items of business may be proposed by the Chair of the committee, or by agreement of 2 members of the Working Group.

The minutes and associated recommendations of each meeting will be submitted to Council for consideration. 

No date has been set for the first meeting.